Sophisticated URL hijackers seem to have settled on a set of tactics designed to minimize the discoverability of their affiliate ID. They’ve learned that their ads are discoverable and have been investing in steps to prevent detection of their affiliate ID. While we have seen a wide range of skills, the use of disposable URLs [...]

I had a fun video chat with Jamie Birch of JEB Commerce a few weeks back. We touch on a number of the challenges facing affiliate managers and discuss the details associated with the CSS History Hack and referrer laundering. You can see the full video on the JEB Commerce blog.

We’ve seen Google testing a number of different display elements in AdWords over the last few weeks. Store Ratings Google is pulling store ratings from Google Products and displaying the aggregate rating inline with ads. Below are the display treatments for the top and right rail ads returned for a search for ‘grills’: Condensed Site [...]

Recently we’ve seen affiliates exploit a hole common to web browsers to evade detection from affiliate managers. The hack is known as the CSS History Hack and it exposes information about what sites you visited before. Affiliates use this technique to determine if a web visitor is an affiliate manager (or network representative), and then [...]

We’ve introduced several new features over the past few months into PoachMark and felt we were overdue for an update: Generate search engine infringement notices This frequently requested feature makes it easy to generate takedown requests for the search engines. You can access this tool directly from the ads and alerts reports by clicking on [...]

As expected, the European Court of Justice ruled today that Google is not liable for search ads purchased by competitors on search ads. As it stands now, TM owners can prevent all ads from displaying on trademarked terms in most European countries. In the US anyone can purchase ads on trademarked terms, and many advertisers [...]

I’ll be speaking at SMX West Thursday on the panel: Thorny Legal Issues: What’s Happening and Why Should You Care? Please feel free to stop by and say hi!

On Tuesday, US Federal authorities filed criminal charges against Christopher Kennedy, a developer of cookie stuffing software. While the developer claims to have never engaged in cookie stuffing for his own benefit, he is being charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. These charges carry a maximum fine of $250K and 5 years in prison. [...]

I’ll be speaking at Affiliate Summit West on the Monday 2 PM Panel: Affiliate Program Compliance: Working with the Networks. My co-panelists include Rachel Corcoran, Director of Compliance at Hydra, Graham MacRobie, CEO of Alias Encore and Jamie Birch, CEO of JEBCommerce. Stop by and say hi!

AOL Monitoring PoachMark originally launched with search ad monitoring for Google, Yahoo and Bing. We’ve consistently heard our customers describe the challenge of detecting affiliates as similar to a game of Whack-A-Mole. Once they stopped affiliate abuse in one search engine they’d frequently find it in another engine. Requests quickly followed to monitor Ask and [...]